I'm not entirely sure how to take the movie " A Day without a Mexican." While I understand what it was trying to do, I dont think I agree with the way in which the information was presented. I think the satirical and comical nature of the film may overshadow the point of the movie. The movie was meant to bring to light the blatant anti-immigrant discourse that is prevelant in America today.
I spoke with Prof. Caroll after her lecture to asks if she agrees with the movie and she said at first she didn't like it becuase she also felt that its comical nature might have distracted from the real issues. However, after closely examining it, she found that it did do a good job in getting peoples attention. Its easy for people to "zone out" on such a touchy subject as immigration and getting people to merely pay attention, is the first half of the battle. However, I do still fear that the light heartedness of the movie might not get people to take the issues seriously enough to actually try and make real changes to the way current immigration laws are made.
The movies was meant to show how important the immigrants are and always have been to the way we function as society. America, in its entire history, has not been able to function without the efforts of a cheap labor force. So far, Latinos have stepped in to take the place of other workers who don't want to work in the fields for long hours with very little pay. Its important to see what role these latinos do play in our everyday lives and how significant their presence is here in teh US. Only then, can we start to mvoe away from the anti-immigrant discourse that plagues immigrants everyday.
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I was also a little disturbed when watching the movie due to the unserious manner in which the issue was presented. I didn't think this would help the Latino community in positive ways because it was making the issue seem as something lighthearted and comical.
Perhaps the comical aspects of the movie is good at catching people's attention, but will they take the problem seriously after watching the film? I think there are other ways in which this problem can be explained to the masses, but since it's such an important issue to our Latino community it should be taken more seriously than this movie did.
I also agree with the face that the movie was too comical. However, the semi-decent comedy is the only thing that kept me entertained. I do think there is truth to the movie. The fact that if all the Mexicans left there would be a lot of jobs suffering because they have no employees. Though, I do think it is over dramatic. I do not think that the state would be so empty and I do think that there are enough legal citizens to keep most of the jobs filled. Overall, I felt it was a good movie, but a little unnecessary.
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